Aish HaTorah
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Aish HaTorah is a Jewish outreach organization started in Jerusalem, Israel by Rabbi Noah Weinberg in 1974.
Program
Aish HaTorah is an organization based in Jerusalem with a goal to teach Jewish people about Jewish values, as well as contemporary issues relevant to Israel and the Jew in the diaspora. Through lectures and community centres in the major metropolitan cities worldwide, Aish hopes to stem Jewish assimilation by reaching out and building bridges between Jews of all persuasions.
According to Aish, the response to its programs has been overwhelming:
- Aish HaTorah operates 26 full-time branches and offers programs in 80 cities, representing 17 countries on 5 continents.
- 100,000 people attend Aish programs annually.
- Its website at Aish.com receives over 1 million visits each month.
- 50,000 hours of taped lectures are listened to each year.
- 4,500 students learn at Aish Jerusalem every year.
- 175 people have graduated from its rabbinic program, raising the number of full-time outreach professionals in North America alone by nearly 60 percent.
The Aish HaTorah World Center-Dan Family Building, directly facing the Western Wall serves as headquarters for this international effort. Aish HaTorah's success has been recognized by many of the world's political and business leaders, particularly the Israeli political establishment that recognizes Aish's ability to motivate Jews to move to Israel (making aliyah).
History
Rabbi Noah Weinberg, a graduate of the American yeshivas Rabbi Chaim Berlin (Brooklyn, New York) and of Ner Yisrael (Baltimore, Maryland) started a Baal teshuva yeshiva for assimilated young men in Jerusalem in 1966. The Six-Day War greatly increased the curiosity of numbers of young people estranged from, but fascinated with, their (grand)parents' Jewish heritage, and to cater to this growing group, Rabbi Weinberg opened Aish HaTorah in 1974, with a much broader vision of what kiruv (Jewish outreach) should entail. For this, he obtained the support of Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, rosh yeshiva ("dean") of the Mir yeshiva in Jerusalem.
External link
- Aish.com - official site (http://www.aish.com/)